Roots of rhythm: a brief history of the music game genre

Most Ars readers are well acquainted with games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band …

Once made up solely of bizarre, quirky titles that gained little more than cult followings, the music game genre has arguably become the strongest area in all of gaming over recent years. Titles like Guitar Hero and Rock Band consistently top the charts despite their high price tags, earning absurd amounts of money for publishers and developers. But these games weren't overnight successes. The rise to prominence of music games has been a long time coming. Join us as we take a look at the history of the genre, and at how it grew from being something quirky and Japanese-only to a red-hot global phenomenon.

The first music game to be released on a home console dates back to 1987. The precursor to Dance Dance Revolution, Dance Aerobics (or Dance Studio as it was known in Japan) had players use the NES Power Pad to mimic an on-screen instructor who moved to the music. Players would have to follow the on-screen characters' moves by stepping on the correct parts of the mat. The game even featured a free form mode, in which players created their own tunes by tapping out notes on the mat. Dance Aerobics was so far ahead of its time, however, that no similar games were released for nearly a decade besides a few arcade titles that never saw the light of day outside of Japan.

The original PlayStation featured an incredible number of innovative titles, among them new takes on the fledgling music genre. In 1996, Japanese musician and game designer Masaya Matsuura teamed up with American artist Rodney Greenblat to create the unforgettable PaRappa the Rapper. Like Dance Aerobics, players were tasked with following on-screen musical cues. As icons scrolled across the screen in time to the music, players had to match the rhythm using well-timed button presses. Each button press would make PaRappa say something so that, essentially, players were making the character rap.

The success of PaRappa soon spawned something of a movement in Japan, with a number of prominent developers creating new games in the genre.

Unlike most game designers, Matsuura actually had a background in music before diving into games. Like many of today's gamers, he grew up during the dawn of both CDs and MTV, and this experience, when combined with an interest in computers, led him to use his musical abilities in unique and creative ways. "I started to believe that in order to realize the music I aspired to, I would have to choose and develop the media myself," Matsuura told Ars. "I think that what drew me to the concept of interactive media is the notion that the player can experience a sense of joint ownership by taking part in the musical expression."

The first fruit of this labor was PaRappa, which was a surprisingly large success both in Japan and abroad. Two years later the game was followed up by UmJammer Lammy, which was similar to PaRappa in terms of gameplay but featured a rockstar lamb and focused on guitar playing instead of rapping. The game also saw a direct sequel for the PlayStation 2 in 2001, and was ported to the PlayStation Portable in 2006. According to Matsuura, the pioneering success of the game was due in large part to the creativity of the development team. "I do believe that the development process was quite unprecedented at the time, which was mostly a case of directing all the staff's imagination," he explained. "This empowerment of imagination gives tonality to various elements of the game, much like the sensation musicians experience playing live sessions."

The success of PaRappa soon spawned something of a movement in Japan, with a number of prominent developers creating new games in the genre. Leading the way was Konami, who created a number of titles and introduced the idea of music games centered around specialty peripherals. The first of these projects was Beatmania, an arcade game that featured a pair of turntables and a mixing board. Players had to successfully keep up with on-screen indicators in order to keep the audience entertained. The line-up of music games quickly expanded, with titles like DanceDance Revolution, GuitarFreaks, and DrumMania introducing gamers to dance-, guitar-, and drum-themed rhythm experiences.

These new experiences attempted to tap into the common human desire to be a musician. "A lot of young people want to be 'rock stars,' so the chance to simulate the thrill of playing in a rock band is very enticing," Douglas Rappaport, senior producer on two of Konami's more recent music games, Rock Revolution and Karaoke Revolution, told Ars. "In addition, it obviously doesn't take the amount of dedication and time to master a video game peripheral as it does to be proficient on a real-world instrument. It provides players instant gratification and entertainment even for the novice consumer."

Unfortunately, while these games proved very successful in Japan, very few made their way outside of that market. "In the U.S., there wasn't much of a music game market," Rappaport explained. One of the prohibitive factors with bringing these games overseas was their peripherals, which were both costly to produce and significantly increased the price of the games themselves. This cost factor, combined with the steady decline in North American arcades, ensured that the only titles to be localized for a North American audience were the likes of Gitaroo Man on the PS2 and Space Channel 5 on Dreamcast, both of which used traditional controllers as input devices. Unfortunately, while these games garnered dedicated cult followings, they failed to really ignite the genre in North America.

But peripheral-based rhythm games refused to die, and eventually they made their way outside of Japan. The immense success of the DDR series in arcades led to an inevitable home release, with a version on the PSOne in 2001. The game featured a mat, which attempted to simulate the experience of the arcade versions. Like Dance Revolution over a decade before it, players used the mat to dance along to the rhythm on screen. Nintendo even jumped aboard the burgeoning bandwagon with Donkey Konga for the GameCube. Using a pair of plastic bongos, players played along with a number of different songs, including classic Nintendo tunes as well as tracks from more recent artists like Blink 182 and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

By this point, music games were becoming more accepted, though they had yet to achieve widespread appeal among the general, non-gaming population. While the games were becoming more and more commercially successful, they still remained relatively niche. The music aspects appealed to non-gamers, but the "game" elements didn't. This all changed in 2004, when Sony released the first entry in the long-running SingStar series.

I agree with WalkerWhite... I have many a great gaming memory with Frequency and Amplitude, its sequel... Harmonix didn't just come from out of nowhere. They deserve a mention somewhere in the article.

Woohoo, Audiosurf was mentioned! That game is a huge deal on my (former) floor at college, with the death metal fans playing some insane levels (seriously, try it, they're insanely tough even on the easiest mode). Its really fun just sitting down and "surfing" to some cheesy 80s and 90s tunes with friends.

No mention of Rez (which did the whole integration of player attacks and enemy deaths into the level sound track thing before Everyday Shooter) or Vib Ribbon (another game from Masaya Matsuura that could generate a "unique" level from any audio track long before Audiosurf) either. Those were two of my favorite music games from back before the days of Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Not to imply that the article is incomplete for omitting it, but it's possible fairly compellingly to argue that Skyroads was a rhythm game, one with a scoring system which, for its asjustibility and binary austerity, is still unmatched by current games.

Skyroads maps frequently involved memory scheduling of long precision sequences of keyboard moves, which were signalled by the road data being fed to the player by a down-scrolling pseudo-3D visual. A certain amount of mistake could be corrected from on the fly, but if your spaceship died you had to start over. In this sense, there was no scoring, but simply a matter of finishing the road (song?) or not. Interestingly enough, the game was also acclaimed for its music, specifically.

You missed one of the great rhythm games, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quest_for_Fame]"Quest for Fame"[/url]. My friend had it, and we spent endless hours trying to get to the big stage with Aerosmith.

I was also about to post about Vib Ribbon The more extreme music you put in, the more fun you get out...

I'm gonna see if I can get my hands on Frequency and Amplitude - they seem to be getting a lot of rave reviews. I recall reading about a music game that used a special controller shaped like a vinyl disc player that you would use to scratch - does anyone remember the name of that game, and if it is still available? I think it was pretty rare years ago...

Seriously, of all websites, I can't believe Ars would be the one to write an article about music games (leading up to Rock Band, of course.) and NOT include Frequency/Amplitude!

Frequency was created by a couple of guys who just wants people to get the same fun out of creating music that musicians do. Frequency was such a huge success (even for the bands in it, like Freezepop), that they were able to create Amplitude, using popular licensed music.

Freq/Amp also paved the way for the general interface for Guitar Hero.

Without Frequency and Amplitude (and their huge success), there absolutely would not be Guitar Hero or Rock Band.

Anyone else remember ToeJam & Earl (in Panic on Funkotron) for the Sega Genesis? It was released in 1993. While not entirely a rhythm game, it had this great mini-game called "Jam Out" where you had to hit buttons combinations to the rhythm to perform the right dance moves. I remember wishing there was more of that in the game!

I feel like the article missed the one big factor that kept rhythm games in the "quirky Japanese" niche for so long: The music. The music in those early games was oddball Japanese electronica for the most part, not the sort of thing that your average American is going to put in their CD player in the car. Worse, due to the licensing problems the US release of various games (especially in the DDR series) tended to lack the good oddball Japanese electronica, instead being relegated to the B tracks that were produced in-house by Konami. The reason Guitar Hero, and later Rock Band, were able to smash sales records is because they played music your average person recognized and already enjoyed. You didn't have to suffer through the crappy music to play the game like before.

Another game of the "early influences" of music games was Otocky, which was released on the Famicom in early 1987. In many ways, it's the forefather of games like Rez and Everyday Shooter, including the angle of procedurally-generated music. It was also created by Toshio Iwai, the guy who created Sound Fantasy for Nintendo (ultimately being adapted into Maxis' SimTunes) as well as, more recently, Electroplankton.

Yeah, I really love the rhythm game genre. When I first picked up GH in 2006 at a friends house, I thought this will suck. Boy was I wrong- it was a ton fun.

I agree with jandrese- the reason these games have hit the big time is because it has songs most people have heard of. And its so awesome to be able to rock out to songs we know. How many people tap their hands on a table to the beat of a song? Now we can be immersed in it. Its great for people like me that have no musical talent whatsoever to be able to "participate" in playing music.

I was ecstatic when GH3 came out for the Wii- and I played it non stop for months, going from Easy, to Medium, to Hard, to Expert. And when Rock Band came out for the PS2, my friend got it and we played that for months.

Of course, Harmonix has fallen somewhat in my eyes, as they have continued to give us Wii owners the shaft- the first RB on the Wii was gimped, the second was way late, and now the DLC is way behind. Activision has been much better, with GH:WT being released at the same time as other platforms, and the DLC being synced up. Hopefully, Harmonix will get their junk together soon.

Anyone else remember ToeJam & Earl (in Panic on Funkotron) for the Sega Genesis? It was released in 1993. While not entirely a rhythm game, it had this great mini-game called "Jam Out" where you had to hit buttons combinations to the rhythm to perform the right dance moves. I remember wishing there was more of that in the game!

Quit fussing if your personal favorite rhythm game wasn't mentioned; the article was about the genre as a whole, not just a list of honorable mentions.

quote:

Originally posted by Fanblade:Anyone else remember ToeJam & Earl (in Panic on Funkotron) for the Sega Genesis? It was released in 1993. While not entirely a rhythm game, it had this great mini-game called "Jam Out" where you had to hit buttons combinations to the rhythm to perform the right dance moves. I remember wishing there was more of that in the game!

YES! I totally agree with you. ToeJam & Earl (both of them) were awesome games and the Jam Out minigame was great.

Osu! Tatakae! Oendan! what? This game was ALWAYS mentioned early on in the regular "What is good for the DS?" threads that popped up every few days in the GESC. Elite Beat Agents was adopted from Oendan and it absolutely deserves a mention, even in a genre piece. The genre is on portables as well, so you should have included the Guitar Hero: On the Go with the add-on for DS/DS lite.

The biggest thing for these games breaking out was being able to play songs that we know (as jandrese mentioned).